At long last, the mockingjay has returned.

Francis Lawrence took over as director, and he didn’t disappoint. With the announcement of the new director came the casting announcements. 

Unlike the first movie, whose cast was mainly composed of relatively small-time actors and actresses, the sequel saw featured several big names in its credits, which built the hype even more.

Stars such as Alan Ritchson, Jeffrey Wright, Sam Claflin, Lynn Cohen and (most importantly) Jena Malone appeared as tributes. Philip Seymour Hoffman appeared as the new Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee. He brought a much-needed maturity to the movie and maintained the same mysterious air as in the book.

Malone played Johanna Mason, the District 7 victor of a previous Hunger Games, who serves as the Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) unwilling ally. 

Everything Malone did was perfect. She is one of the few people who can play a character from a book with more depth than the written character without changing the story. She portrayed Johanna’s snarky and reluctant nature phenomenally. The film would not have been as good without her.

Lynn Cohen also really made the film. She played Mags, an old, silent District 3 victor from years past. It really said something about how well Cohen could portray a character to the extent she did without using any words. She didn’t overact or embellish her movements. It was all in her eyes.

As for the plot, Catching Fire is one of the few book-to-movie adaptations that sticks mostly to the script. A few scenes from the book didn’t make it into the movie, and only one scene (Katniss’ meeting Plutarch) was altered in a noticeable way.

The script kept to the book almost perfectly, right down to the night terrors and brutality of the peacekeepers. 

One concern a few fans had was that Catching Fire would follow the media’s portrayal of the story and emphasize the supposed love triangle movie kept true to the book and portrayed Katniss as an independent woman with two guys clamoring over her while she tries to deal with more pressing issues.

For those who know the ending, it’s a cliffhanger—a major one. As far as the screenplay goes, the portrayal of the final scene could not have been better. We watch the expression in Lawrence’s change from worried to fearful to angry, and it’s awesome.

Unfortunately, right after the screen turns black, a big Hunger Games logo comes up and transforms into the Catching Fire logo. It really takes away from the impact of the scene and of the movie as a whole.

All in all, it’s a great movie. I saw it twice in one weekend. Anyone at all familiar with the story will love the film.